The Wonderful World of Weather Webquest


Visit the websites below to read all about weather and climate. Find the answers to the questions on the page listed at the top of each section

Part One - Cloud Types and Formation

Click on this link to answer the following questions.

1. What does the word "Cirrus" mean?
2. Are cirrus clouds low or high?
3. What are the large clouds that sometimes look like huge puffs of cotton?
4. What root word tells us that a cloud brings rain?
5. Which type of cloud usually covers the whole sky and brings gray days?\

Click on All about fog. Answer the following questions.

1. Fog is a _ based on the ground, rather than in the atmosphere.
2. Fog forms when there is a lot of ___ near the ground, or when the air near the ground cools to the dew point.

Click on this link and read about evaporation. Complete the missing information.

• ## As the earth is heated by the sun, bubbles of _ rise upward from the warm surface.
  1. If a thermal (vapor) is able to rise high enough to cool to its _ point,the moisture condenses and becomes visible as a ___.
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Part Two - Climate and Weather

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What is an air mass?
1. What is an air mass?
2. What is the difference between a tropical and polar air mass?

What Causes High Pressure?
3. What causes an air mass to have high pressure?

What Causes Low Pressure?
4. What causes an air mass to have low pressure?

Warm Fronts
5. When a warm front moves through an area, what will happen to the temperature?
6. Look at the first diagram. There are two temperatures written in blue (28 and 31). These numbers will change once the warm front moves through. What do you think the temperatures will change to? Why?

Cold Fronts
7. When a cold fron moves through an area, what will happen to the temperature?
8. Look at the first diagram. There are two temperatures written in red (55 and 62). These numbers will change once the cold front moves through. What do you think the temperatures will change to? Why?

• Occluded Fronts

9. What is an occluded front?
10. What will happen to the temperature once an occluded front moves through?

• Fujita Scale

11. What kind of storms are classified on the Fujita Scale?
12. Are most tornadoes weak, strong, or violent?
13. Are most tornado-related deaths from weak, strong, or violent tornadoes?


US Tornado Climatology
14. Where in the world can tornadoes happen?
15. Where in the world are tornadoes most likely to happen?